The turning point for the Canadian women, currently tuning up for an Olympic qualifying event later this season, was the first set.

“We are disappointed about losing the first set,” said Canada’s captain Tammy Mahon of Holland, Man. “We didn’t have discipline in the next two sets and I hope we can clean that up in our next games”.

Canadian head coach Arnd Ludwig concurred.

“We made 20 errors in the last two sets and we couldn’t play well after the injury to a Dominican player,” he said.

Sarah Pavan of Kitchener, Ont., led the Canadian scorers with nine points.

The Dominican Republic has been the most consistent team in the tournament’s 10-year history reaching the podium in each of the previous nine editions with two gold, four silvers and three bronzes.

The other teams in Canada’s pool are Cuba, Argentina, Chile and Mexico. Pool B is comprised of Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Brazil, Trinidad and Tobago, the U.S., and Peru. The first place team in each pool in the round robin get a bye to the semis while second and third crossover for the quarterfinals.